Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

There have been few hotel tilesets or levels that I actually like, but I knew that Disguise’s 50th tileset would have to be something special. Did I mention that I hate hotels? Well, there come along a few hotel levels (“Five Star Hotel” by Super Saiyan) and tilesets (another Hotel Heroes tileset called “Hotel Dream”) that make me think twice. And this is one of those tilesets. I’m not exactly sure how this qualifies as a hotel tileset, though. It features a lot of tiles, the bulk of which are Mediterranean-looking sand and oasis tiles. There are also some building tiles, which are obviously supposed to be used for a hotel level. It also contains some advertisements for dating Mirrow, in case you have the sudden urge to use them for no particular reason. Some of the art reminds me of Agama, strangely enough, though the style is still very much classic Disguise. The hills and the textured background both look very realistic and spifftacular, with shades of the original Hotel Dream tileset. Some of the building tiles look cheap (especially the red ones) but still look good when used in a level. The only bed tiles included are quite large but have Super Saiyan’s name all over them. If you aren’t Super Saiyan and aren’t making a level featuring Super Saiyan’s room, these tiles are pretty useless. The fire is well-done, and is not a carbon copy of the default Jazz 2 fire, which is nice to see. Also included are well-drawn but cartoony genie tiles. The water looks very well textured, but looked a bit off when used in a level. Still, the oasis tiles are some of the best tiles in the tileset. While it has great tiles for building the next Taj Mahal, some of the normal hotel “features” seem to be lacking. There aren’t any televisions, unbranded beds, or anything like that that you would expect to see in a hotel level, but it’s possible to make due. In short, this is a great-looking tileset that is more of a building and desert tileset than it is a hotel one, but is still worth using if you want to make a Persian-themed hotel level. Great drawing, and certainally worthy of being Disguise’s gasp fiftieth tileset. A definite download recommendation, and a rating of 8.5.

EDIT: Apparently my assumption that Hotel Heroes would be making a hotel was wrong. It is, in fact, not intended to be a hotel, but could be used as one I suppose. It is actually a tileset to make an Arabian castle. Ignore my stupidity and download this tileset. Now. Or perish. And be attacked by many angry squirrels.

EDIT AGAIN: Fine, I’ll review this as a normal NOT FOR HOTELS tileset which is NOT FOR HOTELS. This is a good Arabian-themed tileset that is NOT FOR A HOTEL. It features well-drawn land tiles that are NOT FOR HOTELS. It includes some advertisements NOT MEANT FOR HOTELS for Mirrow, who built this tileset, which is NOT MEANT FOR HOTELS. It’s a good tileset for NOT BUILDING HOTELS and definitely worth a download and is worth NOT BUILDING HOTELS with it. And, of course, this tileset is intended for NOT BUILDING HOTELS. Sorry for misreviewing this NOT FOR HOTELS tileset, which is, of course, NOT FOR BUILDING HOTELS. And since this is NOT FOR HOTELS, my rating for the NOT FOR HOTELS tileset increases by a NOT FOR HOTELS 0.2 to the very NOT FOR HOTELS score of 8.7. And a NOT FOR HOTELS download recommendation. Very good, NOT FOR HOTELS job, Wisety and Mirrow and NOT FOR HOTELS.

-Trafton aka NOT FOR HOTELS

P.S. Did I fail to mention that this is NOT FOR HOTELS? Well, that’s because it is. Now, take this 8.7 and run. If you see a green van following you, make sure that all of your pie is in France. It’s necessary to public safety that you do not eat ketchup. Thank you. I will now go see a psychiatrist that is NOT FOR HOTELS.
[This review has been edited by Trafton AT][This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

“SPACE LEVEL WITH ISLANDS” is possibly the most descriptive level title ever (a lot more descriptive, for instance, than “This Level is Untitled.”) and I must say that I like this level, thought it has a few quirks. This level isn’t exactly classic EvilMike design. In fact, this level isn’t classic anything. It features two large floating islands, one for each base. Inbetween these two gigantic floating islands are many smaller islands. To get from one base to another, you must either get the fly carrot (the easiest method) or take the time and energy to hop from island to island. I can’t say that I’m 100 percent sold on the layout. During a frenzied game with a lot of people, it was a chore getting the fly carrot, and really not practical jumping from island to island (it’s easy to slip and fall). If you happen to fall off the islands, you will be magically saved by the warps below, which warp you back to whichever base you started from. You can’t enter the base very far with the fly carrot, so some of the level must be ventured on foot. The islands themselves are too small for me to say what kind of flow they have. It’s hard to really judge the flow of the level, anyway. It’s not easy to navigate, but that’s much of what makes this level so interesting. Eyecandy is very good, but strange-looking. If you aren’t a fan of emerald green, then I dobut that you’ll like how this level looks. There are no tile errors, and everything fits together well. The more people in the server, the less the fly carrot will matter and the more battles on the islands inbetween the bases will. This is where the bulk of the ammo, including the very helpful seeker powerup, lurks. I like this level a lot, and despite the new navigational system, it is still a fun play. If you can get used to the islands and don’t have problems jumping from platform to platform (Mario fans will like this level) then I think you’ll like this level. It’s an excellent download, and worth a download recommendation and an 8.2 rating. Nice job, EvilMike.

(Note: apparently, since the last release, music has been added and the warping system has been speeded up significantly. The improvements don’t really do much for the rating I’m giving it, but these are welcomed improvements.)

Well, since I’ve played this pack several times, I feel that I am obligated to rate it. So, here I go.

The first level in this pack is one by the file name of candionbatl.j2l, entitled “Sweet Tooth.” The first thing I noticed with this level is that the flow of the level really needs work. While the layout (in JCS) is not bad at all, the author seemed to only use springs in areas where it was required. I tested it with Spaz, but I can’t imagine trying to play it with Jazz and having to uppercut whenever I wanted to get anywhere. The lack of springs damages an otherwise fairly good level. Weapon placement, contrary to navigation, is very good. There weren’t many gripes I could find. Powerups weren’t overused, but the bouncy powerup was in an area that was hard to get to with Spaz, and I could imagine almost impossible to enter with Jazz without taking up time that could be spent battling the opponent. The spoons in the level have one way applied to most of the spoon, but the part connected to the wall is as solid as a brick, which makes it hard to tell where you should jump and where you shouldn’t. This level features a lot of dead ends which subtract from the gameplay. Many corridors are small, making navigation often annoying. Eyecandy was good, but in some parts just looked off. The tileset served up O.K. but usually redundant eyecandy that could have been used better. The background looked like it would be better off in a low-quality Microsoft Powerpoint presentation than a level. It’s a level that suffers from small annoyances that build up, but still not a bad level.

The second level, desertobatl.j2l aka “Dune Battle” looked very good at first glance. The shimmering blue waterfalls were used well, and there were few tile errors in the dunes. Unlike in the previous level, it seems “Dune Battle” is often a little more friendly towards Jazz than it is towards Spaz. This is mainly because Spaz, when trying to get the seeker powerup, will often end up accidentally jumping through the bridge, or missing completely and falling down to an area where the player must go around the entire level in order to get another try. Jazz, on the other hand, can easily get it using helicopter ears. The tileset was used in an interesting way that I haven’t really seen before, but there are areas where this was annoying. The level was severely knocked by the bottom of it. Most of the level’s bottom is covered so you can not see it while you are down there. This tends to turn into a mad scuttle jumping trying to get out of this area. Also, there are a few platforms that are actually in the background that I often tried to jump onto. They look no different from all the other platforms, and this can be really confusing. Another eyecandy gripe would be the various spikes around the level. When I first saw them, I thought to myself “oh no. Please tell me he didn’t use the hurt event.” Fortunately, the author didn’t make the classic mistake of trying to use Hurt in a multiplayer level. However, menacing spikes that you can just walk through is a bit abnormal. It would be a good idea just to remove them entirely. Spring use was much better in this level, and there were fewer dead ends than the last one. However, weapon placement was not as good. The seeker powerup is a big advantage in this level. If you get it, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a nice amount of kills before someone can kill you. The rest of the level features some clumped together ammo, a lot of it pepper spray (which is rarely used since most people actually favor the blaster above the far-reaching but hard-to-see and often annoying to aim pepper spray.) Eyecandy was otherwise good (including the only above average background in this entire pack), and navigation was better than the other level (except for the layer-covered bottom). This is still probably my least favorite level in the pack, but not bad.

The final level, nippiusbatl.j2l aka Frostbattle, which uses Violet CLM’s excellent Nippius conversion (Violet actually made all the conversions in this pack I believe), was probably my favorite level in the entire pack. Navigation was very, very good. I never had to backtrack, except to get into a hole with a powerup. There are fire, ice, and bouncy powerups in the level (one each.) Ice, while it certainally fits the tileset, is pretty much as useful in multiplayer as a stick is when you are about to be eaten by a pack of hungry leapords. Eyecandy was pretty much tedious and boring. The background, again, looks like a PowerPoint background (though it is the original background from the Jazz 1 level). A lot of the level features pretty much no eyecandy. Some parts may have some interesting items in it, but most of it consists of the ultra-boring ground tiles with little eyecandy to be seen. It may not be pretty, but this level certainally has great eyecandy, and is worth the download for that alone. My favorite level in this pack, I would say.

Rating the pack is hard. The pack suffers from many small annoyances, which brings it’s score down quite a bit. Still, this pack is definitely worth a download, especially if you are a battle fan or Jazz Jackrabbit 1 buff. It may have some bugs, but everyone can find at least one level they like in this pack, since the style they were made with differs in many ways. It’s a great pack if you are a battle fan, but otherwise you may not love this download. I’ll give it a download recommendation and a 7.1, rounded down to a pretty good score of 7. Not a bad effort at all. Keep up the good work. You have a lot of potential, Blackraptor.

-Trafton

I’ve updated this review several times since originally making it for various reasons, including information addition.
Wow. It’s been ages since BlurredD last uploaded something, so I think I’ll give this a really long review that will beat the pants off of EvilMike’s really long review. This is an early version of it, so I’ll edit it when I get finished. I just wanted to post it in the off-chance that my computer would crash (OK, so maybe the chance isn’t so off) and I would lose everything. So, here we go, reviews of levels one through eight in a twenty level pack. I hope you brought a book.

Level 1: Thermal Scorch
“Thermal Scorch” is the first level in this pack. It uses the excellent 7th Lava Fall tileset. When playing, the background was a bit distracting, but looked very good. This level has very good eyecandy. The playing area consists of many black boxes over, unsurprisingly enough, a lava pit. There are a few small pockets of ammo with bouncy, flamethrower, seeker, and RF contained within. Graphically, this is one of the best levels in the entire pack. It’s pretty easy to move around in, and it’s clear that this level was tested heavily. Very good, and fun to play online. On a scale of one to five: 4.

Level 2: System Clogged
“System Clogged” looks a bit strange at first glance. It features plain gray tiles in combonation with oblong-shaped blue worm-like circles. It’s hard to explain without actually seeing the level. This level’s flow is not as good as that of Thermal Scorch’s, but is still quite easy to move around in. This level adds TNT ammo to the mix, which is a welcome addition because there are many more tiles in this level. I found it pretty easy to fall in, especially late in the game. During single player testing, I noticed a strange bug that stems from the huge amount of animations in this level: my fire completely disappeared in many areas. Still, this is a good level, but I can’t say it’s my favorite of the bunch. It’s graphical blandness and only mildly interesting play make it not the best play. On a scale of one to five: 3.5.

Level 3: Water Drain
This level, dubbed “Water Drain”, which has TNT, ice, flamethrower, and electroblaster ammo, and is one of the more plain-looking levels of the pack, but is one of the easiest to navigate around in. It uses Blade’s somewhat dreary Wasteland tileset. This level has one of the thinnest bottoms of them all. Many areas are just one tile high and are very easy to fall into with one wrong move with the TNT. Others are completely empty at the bottom tile, making it increadibly easy to go out. This is one of the quicker plays in the entire pack, but is no slouch on gameplay. Still, it’s not my favorite of the pack by far. On a scale of one to five: 3.5.

Level 4: Heaven Sent
I was surprised that BlurredD decided to use Agama’s excellent Heaven tileset in a surivor level, but this is one of my favorites of the entire pack. “Heaven Sent” gives out a peaceful serine look, but in no way is it a light play. When I hosted it, it was a very rushed game. TNT and RF were used heavily, and pretty much the entire level was destroyed in less than a minute. The passages are fairly small and it can be slightly annoying to move around, but this does not detract from the overall gameplay. This is especially good with many people, but don’t expect to play this level for long. It’s very easy to go out. An excellent play, though there are a few somewhat annoying bugs that may detract from the level’s quality a bit. On a scale of one to five: 4.

Level 5: No Escape
“No Escape” uses Skulg’s Lava Lamp tileset. Happily, it contains no lava lamps (the level doesn’t, at least.) For the area there is in this level, there are less blocks than average and most of the bottom tiles are not covered, so it’s really easy to go out in this level if you make a mistake. There is one ammo area that is only accessible if seeker ammo is used, but otherwise all areas can be shot and broken. Some of the blocks are different looking, but most are standard. The most annoying part of this level was the flashing background, which surprised me every time. When I was playing this level, several people complained that this flashing light was annoying and wouldn’t take “disable low detail” for an excuse. Still, this is pretty good, and fairly fun to play online despite it’s occationally annoying quirks. On a scale of one to five: 3.5.

Level 6: Electrical Wipeout
“Electrical Wipeout” uses the plain old Tube Electric tileset, which causes it to look pretty plain. In fact, the blocks that were used as shootable reminded me of bad old blocks-as-ground levels using this tileset. This is probably one of the longer levels included in this pack. It takes so long to play because it is vertically tall, and takes a while, even when trying, to get to the bottom. Also, the areas where you can fall through at the bottom are quite thin. It took about five minutes to finish this level, which was toward the high end of all of the level’s play times. This level shines when you have a lot (and I mean a lot) of people in the server. Otherwise, it’s graphical tediousness and long play time make this one of the less interesting levels in the pack. In fact, this may very well be one of my least favorite levels of all these. On a scale of one to five: 3.

Level 7: Polar Chill
“Polar Chill” uses ET’s old tileset Ground Force (which looks astoundingly like a Jazz Jackrabbit 1 conversion). This is one of my favorite levels in the entire pack. Navigation was really easy, and I rarely bumped into blocks. The bottom was about two-thirds solid tiles and one-third empty space. The ice-ish tiles looked good and exploded evenly, unlike the System Clogged blue worm blocks. After playing this many times, I can safely say that this is so far my favorite of them all. It looks good, plays very well, and is just plain fun, especially with a lot of people. On a scale of one to five: 4.5.

Level 8: Tri-Sides
“Tri-Sides,” which uses the huge, industrial CyberSpaz v2 tileset, is also one of the better levels in the pack. There is a unique twist to this level which makes it so different than all of the other levels and adds a bit of spice to playing it. The walls on the side of the level function just like the bottom part. In other words, if you are shot into the wall, or just accidentally fall into them, you’re out. The level never says this (it would be nice if BlurredD mentioned this in the text string at the beginning of the level, but then again, it is fun watching people scramble to try to figure out why they just went out.) Playing the level quickly turns in to a melee of sorts. You’ll have better luck winning this level if you concentrate on trying to knock your opponent into the walls, because it’s much, much, much harder to go out by falling into the bottom. One of my favorites. On a scale of one to five: 4.5.

Level 9: Diablo’s Outlook
“Diablo’s Outlook” is the second level in this pack to use a non-custom tileset, Medivo 1 in this case. This level differs from many of the other levels in that there are two seperate parts to the level, seperated by an impassible wall for most of the level, but an empty space with two platforms that slide in and slide out in the middle of them near the bottom. Passing from each side of the level to the other frequently is a bad idea, since it is really easy to miss the platform and go out by falling to the bottom. The eyecandy on this level is good, unlike the Tube Electric-based level. Still, this is a fantastic level and one of my favorites. It requires more strategy than most of the other levels, but is still enjoyable as a quick or long play. This level also features more non-standard blocks than any other, including some buttstomp blocks that are practically suicide to break. On a scale of one to five: 4.

Level 10: Uncharted Territory
“Uncharted Territory” uses Blade’s aptly named Space tileset. It’s a very metallic level. Other than the background, the entire level in fact is in a metallic-ish gray color. It is a bit plain to look at, but the background is strikingly different from the blocks used. It’s black-and-purple with white comets flying by. Due to the way they were animated, the blocks in this level disappear immediately when shot instead of having the usual collapsing animation. This is strange, but an interesting effect. The losing area looks very plain and bulgy off of the level. This is not my favorite level. It looks a bit off, but it’s pretty fun to play. Still, “Uncharted Territory” is better than almost all of the other levels based on this gameplay out there, but it does not live up to the pack’s standards. On a scale of one to five: 2.5.

Level 11: Twenty Six Second Frustration
“Twenty Six Second Frustration” is a blalant joke on the “Twenty Four Hour Coffee” level that was hosted constantly in 2000. The level uses the unknown but amazing-looking tileset MeZmErIzE (sic), the same one that was used in “Twenty Four Hour Coffee.” Levels made with this tileset tend to fall into two categories. The first is amazing looking. The second is levels that have so many tile bugs or just use the tileset wrong and end up looking like someone that the Fluffy the bunny rabbit deposited on newspaper. This level definitely falls into the first category. If you can get past the stunning looking green blocks and emerald waterfall background, this level turns out to be one of the better-playing levels of this pack. Despite it’s name, gameplay was not frustrating at all. In fact, I can safely say that I thuroughly enjoyed playing this one in particular. It has TNT, bouncy, and ice ammo and is horizontally large. The ammo is scattered out well, and is extremely well placed. This is one of the most enjoyable levels in the pack, and definitely a favorite of mine. It plays great, and is graphically dazling as well. Because of it’s size and fairly solid tiles, it may take a while to play this level, even when there are many people. It’s best with plenty of people, but enjoyable with any amount in the server. On a scale of one to five: 4.

Level 12: An Insidious Illusion
The third tileset in the pack to use a non-custom tileset, “Insidious Illusion” uses the Castle 2 Night tileset. This is one of the strangest levels in the entire pack in that it is reverse. The tiles that can be shot are see-through and appear as background while you walk on the dark tiles. It takes a while to get used to, but is a fun little trick involving invisible tiles. It’s hard to get used to this level, and even after playing it a lot, I’m still confused by it to a huge extent. While this level is definitely unique and interesting, it always appears dark, even with no ambient lighting change. It’s a cool idea, but I can’t say that I like it. The Castle tileset is overused, but the parts using the normal Castle tiles are fine looking. Still, the see-through tiles look strange. Not the best level in the pack, but some may like it. On a scale of one to five: 2.

Level 13: Safety Precaution
Of all of the levels in the pack, “Safety Precaution” (which uses the space-themed “ETs Planet 1 v3” tileset by – of course – ET) is definitely the strangest one. In fact, it’s nearly completely different than all of the others. Instead of having blocks on the bottom, it has springs that block you from falling into the warp. There is only one way to go through the springs, which is to hit them while you are blinking from damage. You will then go straight through into the warp. To spice it up a bit, BlurredD include the automatic firing laser MCE one tile above the springs so, if you are unlucky and hit by them, you go out. The rest of the level features some steel pseudo-3D blocks that can be broken as tiles in any of the other levels can. However, there are areas inbetween the blocks where you can’t slip through even though it appears you can, making navigation sometimes annoying. Also, note that there is a small area in which you can just fall directly and there are no springs, which often can cause a problem. It’s still quite fun to play, and one of my favorites, though it’s hard to move around. On a scale of one to five: 4.

Level 14: Mechanical Clock Chaos
The fourth level to use a non-custom tileset (in this case Labrat 1), “Mechanical Clock Chaos” has some cool ideas in it. The first is an interesting animated device at the start, which doesn’t add to gameplay, but certainally looks great. The second is how the blocks disappear. As time goes on, a clock (hence it’s name), activates and destroys tiles. This is a very hard concept to pull of, but definitely adds to the playing value. It’s great to see interesting new concepts like this in levels. Nice job. The rest of the level is pretty much standard. It has the same bad-looking blocks as in the Tube Electric level. It also has a few areas that you can only get to using bouncy ammo that contain TNT. There’s not much to say about this level. Gameplay is a heck of a lot like all of the other levels, but the clock idea is really fascinating. You won’t notice it much during play, but it’s an advancement in JCSing, which is always welcome. On a scale of one to five: 3.5.

Level 15: Chain Reaction
The fifteenth level in this pack, “Chain Reaction,” uses Overlord’s space/secret agent hybrid tileset Top Secret ]|[. “Chain Reaction” seems to have tiles in a U shape. The right and leftmost sides all have large stacks of tiles, which gradually slope down to the point where there are only two to four tilesets seperating you from the warp in the middle of the level. This isn’t one of the most innovative of the levels, but is still a fun quick play. Most battling will occur on the top of the hills on the left or right, since the middle will quickly be destroyed. This level contains the standard ammo plus pepper spray, which is practically useless other than that it is hard to see and may be of some use if your opponent is stalling. Other than that, there isn’t much special about this level, but it’s good. On a scale of one to five: 4.

Level 16: Vacant Mine Shaft
“Vacant Mine Shaft” uses the apparently annoynmous “Mining Operations” tileset, which is now less apparently annonymous and is now apparently made by Violet CLM. The tileset itself is very funny to look at and contains many jokes. It’s also not a slouch on tile quality either. The level, like the tileset, is fun to play but is well-made, too. Both of these together is uncommon in levels, especailly in these days of cloud-and-colored-blocks tilesets and levels. In order to carve out a path in which to play, you shoot the three turle’s hard surface on it’s back (the simple word for it is apparently censored.) at the top of the level. They break many of the blocks, creating three seperate path ways for playing. The path of these turtle’s hard surface on it’s back was planned well. The tiles that are taken away leave a smooth-looking level with ammo visible in the right places and hidden in others. The ammo is fairly standard, but eyecandy is very good. I give extra points for managing to calculate the exact path the turtles censored would take and making the level accordingly, because I can imagine this was very hard. This level is fun to play and amazingly well-crafted. One of my favorites. On a scale of one to five: 5.

Level 17: An Insidious Illusion II
“An Insidious Illusion II” is apparently a secret to level 12, “An Insidious Illusion” using the infinitely more interesting Jazz 1 conversion of Battleships (“Jazz 1: Battleships”), which was converted by CelL FoR. The level was much easier to get used to than the original “An Insidious Illusion,” but it still isn’t my favorite level. The black background with white stars contrasts well enough from the dark blue background to avoid confusion, but it’s still ugly. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of the idea, but this level falls into the middle of the pack in the pack (no pun intended, fortunately.) Some may enjoy this, but I do not count myself amoung them. The tileset is good, though. On a scale of one to five: 3.

Level 18: Mean Green Elevator Machine
“Mean Green Elevator Machine,” which uses the excellent “J2LC – Alien Space Lab” tileset has one of the better backgrounds of all of the levels and an interesting concept. The level is checkered with solid and non-solid blocks. There are start positions in the non-solid ones without ammo. The level is surrounded to all sides with a stream-like thing that warps you out of the game if you touch it. However, the most striking thing about the level is the optical illusion that it uses. While it wasn’t immediately evident to me when I started playing, I realized that the background makes it look like the entire level is moving, much like an elevator. In fact, it’s actually the background that’s moving, not the level. It’s still an interesting idea, though I have seen it before. This one is slightly above average compared to the pack in gameplay, but the eyecandy is simply amazing. Not only is the optical illusion good-looking, but there are no tile errors and the level is great-looking as well. On a scale of one to five: 3.5.

Level 19: Crater Maker
“Crater Maker” uses the “Space Warbase” tileset by Disguise, the same one that is used in the level Zatox CTF. However, it appears that BlurredD used it a little differently than it was used in Zatox. The level’s start looks sort of industrial, with gears and such, but the actual level is more classic Zatox. There are comets flying around in the background and annoyingly yellow “caution” blocks used for the shootable blocks in the level. There are two things that make “Crater Maker” different from the other levels, the first of the way it distributes weapons. The actual level itself has no weapons in it, but when you warp at the start of the game, you fall through several lines of ammo. This limits the amount you have, so you have to make sure to use that amount you get with care or you may end with only your trusty but slightly plain blaster. The second is that most of this level destroys itself. Shoot one of the crates and TNT explodes. Many nearby crates will also explode with it, destroying a lot of blocks at once. This can knock opponents clear out of the game in one sweep, but can also be troublesome for the person who initiated the chain reaction. The yellow blocks which are used are so bright, they often become annoyingly distracting, but it wasn’t much of a problem. One of the better levels in this pack I think. On a scale of one to five: 4.5.

Level 20: Tower of Death
Just when I thought I could get through the entire pack without getting a single missing tileset error, the last level caused one. Mumbling, I went off and downloaded the tileset pack for the level, which I only needed one tileset from. The tileset which I was missing, “Where Bad Rabbits Go,” is a great tileset that I really should have had in the first place. Once I could stand to look at my reflection in the computer screen, I prepared to review the twentieth and final level in this pack. I then ran “Tower of Death” in single player and realized, much to my annoyance, that I would have to host this level in multiplayer or it wouldn’t work. It took a while to realize what in the world I was supposed to do in this level (and several deaths), but it turned out the idea behind the level was simple: climb or be hit by the laser shield MCE and fall. The level is pretty derned tall, and it took me in excess of twenty seconds to get to the top. When I did, it was pretty much a standard battle with whoever was able to outrun the laser’s fire with me. At the end, it turned into a melee not to fall into the bottom when the laser got to the top (it took it’s time.) This level and the laser shield evasion and outrunning is an interesting idea. However, it has been done before, but not quite like this. Still, this is one of my favorites, especially with a lot of people. On a scale of one to five: 4.5.

Notes
In order to play the level, someone must be active so that they can be the level “controller.” This person will need to go into the warp (in the starting room’s top left corner there is an area where the controller can go in) and then start the level. The controller also gets five coins, which can be used to end the level. To end the level, the controller must first go out and then go to the top left corner of the out area. Then the level will end.

This level stops people from playing as Jazz because Jazz has a distinct advantage. There is a trap at the beginning which involves a bridge that stops Jazz players from getting into the areas. Those who dislike Spaz may find this annoying, but it’s fair.

Explination of how Survivor is played
Survivor, which goes by many names, is pretty much universal in gameplay: there are many blocks in a level. These blocks can be shot. Eventually, when many blocks are gone, you get to the bottom. The person who avoids falling into the warp at the bottom for the longest time wins. There are several variations, but this is the one used in the pack.

Is this really survivor?
The quick answer is no. The gameplay type used here is in fact, not Survivor. There really isn’t much of a name for it, but it’s not Survivor. The actual name of the gameplay type is Ground Force. The gameplay type was invented by ET. One of the levels in this pack, in fact, uses ET’s tileset entitled “Ground Force” which was specially made for making levels of these type. As the levels caught in, people started calling them by the more descriptive name of “survivor” levels. The name stuck, and is still used today. The actual gametype is named Ground Force, as Violet mentioned, but calling it that while probably confuse most players, because so few know that it was originally called that.

AND FINALLY, THE VERDICT…
This is going to be hard to rate. At first my idea was to rate it by adding up all the values that I assigned it on a scale of one to ten, but since those were compared to the other levels in the pack, I quickly realized that that would give it an unfairly low rating. So, I decided to play them all and see how good they were as an entirety. After much debating with myself, I cam e to the conclusion that my rating would be somewhere between 8 and 8.7. I eventually decided on 8.5. There are 20 levels in this pack of varying quality, but most are 7-8.5. All together, though, I can see a lot of effort was put into this pack and while many of the levels are similar to eachother, it nonetheless presents a unique new twist on a gameplay type with a few levels that differ from the normal formula. This pack is sure to become a classic, especially certain levels of it. I’m going to give it an overall 8.5. This is definitely the best pack of this type I have ever played, and there is no dobut that BlurredD is an amazing level author. This is definitely a download recommendation. The tileset pack alone contains many must-have classics, and the music is not half-bad either. It was hard to rate this beast, but I think that 8.5 and a download recommendation is fair. Great job, BlurredD. I look foreward to your single player pack, but this definitely made for a great afternoon of reviewing and playing. Great job.

-Trafton
Edit: I included that Mining Operations was made by Violet.
Edit: Added individual ratings, updated “rating” section.
Violet: Time to throw fish! My review was about 3,000 characters longer, with or without spaces included. ;-P
Evades several waves of angry trout.
More STUPpingly STUP edits: I’m glad that some of the glitches have been fixed, and I like the screenshot of the Odyssey tileset that was included (though I already have an early version, because a certain person leaked it onto J2O.) My rating remains the same, though I’m really glad the bugs were fixed. Think of this as a 8.59. ;-P

[This review has been edited by Trafton AT][This review has been edited by Trafton AT]